I once used Brown Sugar to prime a pumpkin porter...But most of the time I use plain old corn/Priming sugar, a pound of it is cheap as dirt and at 3/4 cup/5 gallons you get several batches out of it...

Here's what Palmer says...

Quote:

Originally Posted by How to Brew

Chapter 11 - Priming and Bottling
11.3 What Sugar Should I Prime With?

You can prime your beer with any fermentable that you want. Any sugar: white cane sugar, brown sugar, honey, molasses, even maple syrup can be used for priming. The darker sugars can contribute a subtle aftertaste (sometimes desired) and are more appropriate for heavier, darker beers. Simple sugars, like corn or cane sugar, are used most often though many brewers use dry malt extract too. Ounce for ounce, cane sugar generates a bit more carbon dioxide than corn sugar, and both pure sugars carbonate more than malt extract, so you will need to take that into account. Honey is difficult to prime with because there is no standard for concentration. The gravity of honey is different jar to jar. To use honey, you will need to dilute it and measure its gravity with a hydrometer. For all sugars in general, you want to add 2-3 gravity points per gallon of beer to prime.

Be aware that malt extract will generate break material when boiled, and that the fermentation of malt extract for priming purposes will often generate a krausen/protein ring around the waterline in the bottle, just like it does in your fermenter. Simple sugars don't have this cosmetic problem and the small amount used for priming will not affect the flavor of the beer.

11.4 Priming Solutions

The best way to prime your beer is to mix your priming sugar into the whole batch prior to bottling. This ensures that all the bottles will be carbonated the same. Some books recommend adding 1 tsp. of sugar directly to the bottle for priming. This is not a good idea because it is time consuming and imprecise. Bottles may carbonate unevenly and explode. Plus there is a greater risk of infection because the sugar has not been boiled. The exception to these rules is to use PrimeTabs'. (More on this product in a minute.)

Here's how to make and add priming solutions:
1. Boil 3/4 cup of corn sugar (4 oz by weight), or 2/3 cup of white sugar, or 1 and 1/4 cup dry malt extract in 2 cups of water and let it cool. Use the nomograph in Figure 65 to determine a more precise amount of priming sugar if you wish. You can add the priming solution in either of two ways, depending on your equipment; I prefer the first (2a).

2a. If you have a bottling bucket (see Figure 66) gently pour the priming solution into it. Using a sanitized siphon, transfer the beer into the sanitized bottling bucket. Place the outlet beneath the surface of the priming solution. Do not allow the beer to splash because you don't want to add oxygen to your beer at this point. Keep the intake end of the racking tube an inch off the bottom of the fermenter to leave the yeast and sediment behind.

2b. If you don't have a bottling bucket, open the fermenter and gently pour the priming solution into the beer. Stir the beer gently with a sanitized spoon, trying to mix it in evenly while being careful not to stir up the sediment too much. Wait a half hour for the sediment to settle back down and to allow more diffusion of the priming solution to take place. Use a bottle filler attachment with the siphon to make the filling easier.

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Definitely boil the sugar before using it. With such a small amount of sugar relative to the batch, its not going to make a ton of difference what you use. You might not even notice a difference if you're not looking for it. I'd say, though, that the best option is the corn sugar/dextrose/priming sugar or whatever your lhbs labels it. You'll find that most people here use only that stuff and get pretty consistent, tasty results.

I just made a La Trappe Quadruple 5 gallon recipe and it called for extra-light DME (which I have a little extra of). Now for priming the recipe calls for 1.25 cups of light DME. Will it really matter if I use extra-light, light or even priming sugar? I always thought the priming sugar is not really important as to what type but I could be wrong. Comments?

You need more DME than sugar to prime. And more dextrose than sucrose(table sugar).
For example,a 5G batch of APA at 68F & 2.52 volumes of co2 would be;
4.5oz dextrose
4.2oz sucrose
7.5oz Munton's DME

But is there a difference in flavor, head, carbonation or, anything else?
i.e. I might use extra-light instead of light DME? Will that make a difference on anything relative to 5 gallons. Ever since I messed up a batch I try to stick pretty much to the recipes and this recipe calls for light DME and I only have extra-light DME on hand.

With "white" sugars,there's no difference in flavor. Head is driven by carbonation to an extent,but it's the protiens in the beer that form it. No difference in head or anything here either. Extra light DME should be fine to use. The priming calculator gives different amounts per brand & a percent figure. Look at this one; http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

Maybe someone can taste the difference, but I sure can't. We're talking about a scale of a half cup in a 5 gallon batch. the vast majority of whatever you use if going to be converted to alcohol, so you are only left with a tiny, tiny amount of anything with any flavor.